Humans are hard-wired for story. We’re obsessed with the narrative of nearly everything we encounter…    Over the Christmas break we watched Planet Earth 2, which is of course captivating. It’s breath-taking visually, and each scene with different animals and environments has a different story to tell.   We humans can’t just see raw video of a Marine Iguana hatching and then scurrying off away from snakes that want to eat it… No… we need a full orchestra soundtrack, we need a team of writers to write punchy, well-timed phrases, and we need a voice like David Attenborough to tie it all together.    And you know, from watching it, they’re stitching together multiple scenes from different Iguanas running and I’m fine with that… Why? Even though they’re bending reality? For the sake of story. Because it wouldn’t give you a lump in your throat otherwise. Because it wouldn’t make sense and it wouldn’t feel complete without it. Because we wouldn’t understand (air-quotes) in our rational mind why nature means some Iguanas get caught and constricted to death a few seconds after birth, and some escape to safety.    We are obsessed with story. Netflix knows it. And continues to churn out more STORY than any other platform on earth. They know that if they get us hooked into a good story, they can stretch it out over 7 seasons and keep us in their eco-system.    Facebook knows it. They believe they’re helping us tell OUR OWN stories… I remember when they introduced the name “Timeline” instead of just having your Wall… Like they were automatically becoming our scrapbooks and family photo albums without our permission… And here we are, 10 years after I signed up for Facebook, and they’re doing all of that and more. They’re showing us every day where we were 1 year ago, 4 years ago, 10 years ago… What we believed, what clothes we wore, what we thought was funny, who we were close friends with…    It’s amazing. And scary. But also amazing.    Stories are how we learn. They’re how we make sense of the world. They’re how we grow and understand who we are and how we fit into the bigger picture of it all.    We even tell OURSELVES stories, don’t we?    Every morning when we wake up, our narrative mind starts back up with commentary.  “Ugh, that wasn’t a great night’s sleep. Now I’m going to be out-of-it for my big meeting.”  “Ahh… I should’ve done those dishes last night. Already behind… great.”  “K, I’m heading into a new year. I’m going to make those changes. The same changes I said I’d make… last year… and didn’t do. Oh, who am I kidding? I’ll always be this way.”    We tell ourselves stories, about ourselves. All the time. Constantly.    “Yeah, I’m the fat one in the family.”  “No, never went to college. I know, I should’ve, could’ve made more money, blah blah…”  “I’m too picky, I’ll never find someone to marry.”  “I have a business idea but I’ll never have enough money or time to actually do it.”    When you rip those narratives out of our minds and hear them out-loud, they sound ridiculous, right? They’re so UN-helpful, UN-inspiring, discouraging… It’s no wonder we stay stuck in these little cul-de-sacs of life, never breaking out on adventure or risk or actual meaningful change.    Until… we learn to tell ourselves a different story.    Instead of falling into the well-defined paths we typically walk in our narrative mind… What if we wandered? What if we slowed down enough to look around, and we noticed the little, barely visible paths that branch off into twisty, directions that might shake-up what we’re telling ourselves, and ultimately the lives we’re living.    What if instead of continuing the story of: “These are the genetics I was given. I’ll always look this way. People in better shape are just luckier than I am or have more time or more money to go to special gyms or have private chefs prepare them meals…” Rabbit trail; unhelpful.    What if you use that same imagination—that same narrative creativity—but you harnessed it to turn your story around. “You know what? I was born into a tougher situation than most. I had this diagnosis that always told me I wouldn’t amount to anything. But you know what? Today that changes. Today, I take control. Today, I change the script. I get to say who stays and who goes. I’m the main character of this little story and I’m in charge of how this whole thing plays out.”    I read a book years ago called “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller, subtitle: What I Learned While Editing My Life. One of his earlier books became really popular and some people wanted to turn it into a movie. The only problem was that his earlier book was auto-biographical. It was all about him. So when these writers and producers and directors wanted to translate it to the Big Screen, they wanted to make changes. And if Don wanted to go through with this big project, he had to be OK with that.    They went back through his life with a lens of revisionist history and changed the boring parts, introduced new characters, dramatized some of the big moments, etc.    And one of the biggest take-aways for me from that book was this: If the story you’re living is boring, add an inciting incident.  An inciting incident is a moment that thrusts the protagonist (the main character—you) into the main action of the story.   

• It’s the moment that you quit the construction job and sign up for the military.
• It’s the moment that you finally propose to your girlfriend. 
• It’s the moment you take “BEFORE” pictures and then drive over to the gym to sign-up.
• It’s the moment you throw away that artifact from your past that would give you a pit in your stomach every time you saw it.
• It’s the moment you deleted those apps from your phone.
• It’s the moment you called your crush and left a voicemail asking them out. 
• It’s the moment you step foot back into a church or community of faith and start asking some of the bigger questions you’ve been running from for years. 

  If the story you’re living isn’t working; change the story. It’s as simple—and as terribly difficult—as that. If your story is boring, add an inciting incident. Maybe it needs new characters. Maybe the existing characters are boring and predictable and keeping you, the protagonist, stuck. Maybe it’s the environment that needs to change. Maybe you need to leave your hometown where everyone knows you and keeps you stuck in a little rut where you’ve always been.    Now, it would be callous for me to think that everyone on earth is control of their own narratives… Many are not. Many are not able to simply change their environment or who they’re forced to be around. From sex-trafficking to the poorest villages to disable people in under-developed communities… some aren’t able to change their stories.   But chances are, if you’re listening to a podcast like this, you have access to internet and at least access to health care and mobility and transportation and education… IF you want it. And that’s the big if.    This is isn’t necessarily a New Years’ Resolution episode, but it’s not not one. It’s clearly informed by what I’m thinking about going into this new year… Thinking about patterns in my life that could be changed. How I can continue to follow wherever God might want me and never assume it’s the same as it was last year and the year before that.    Sometimes a helpful exercise is simply to identify the things we believe WILL NEVER CHANGE. What, in your life, do you believe will never change? List them out.    K, you’re married. You have kids. You’ll always be a parent. You’re always overlooked at work for the promotion. You’re always late to big events. You never seem to have enough money, and yet you’re always just a bit greedy with everything…    Whatever they are, write them down. Many of them will be good things that you don’t want to change. Those are the big rocks in your river that the rest of life will flow around. You never want to be unmarried. You never want to NOT be a parent.    But the other things. The things that are more neutral and more on the negative side… Take one of those “never” phrases and just imagine flipping it. Take it from NEVER and turn it into ALWAYS. And daydream for a minute.    What if, all of a sudden, you were qualified for that job you’ve wanted?  What if you had to buy new clothes that fit your thinner frame? What if you had more energy and finally started writing that book or taking that class or making new friends or booking that trip…?   I believe that once we’re able to glimpse it; once we allow ourselves to actually see the potential; then we’ll be motivated to make those changes.    I have a sticky note on my desk that says, “People will change when they realize the PAIN OF THE SAME outweighs the PAIN OF CHANGE.”    When we realize what’s at stake… and we realize that things aren’t getting better by just letting things sit there unattended. “People will change when they realize the PAIN OF THE SAME outweighs the PAIN OF CHANGE.”    So, for you… because this is about you… How is your story panning out? Is it a good story? Is it going somewhere? Are you enjoying the narrative and the pace and the dialogue? Or does it need a change…    Does it need a new set of characters? A new setting? An inciting incident thrust upon it that will unavoidably change all of the boring parts?    It goes back to Jesus’ question in John 1:38 — What do you want?    Have the courage to answer that honestly, and then figure out what kind of story will get you there. When JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter on a scrap of paper in 1990, she knew how it would end before she wrote the beginning. She knew how it would all culminate, but she hadn’t yet decided how to start it. So she had to go back to the start and begin telling the story of a nerdy orphan boy that was teased his whole life… and then, the inciting incident… A giant name Hagrid shows up on Harry’s 11th birthday to tell him that he’s a wizard. And the rest of his life is changed forever.    Be encouraged. Be inspired. Don’t settle for the narrative that you’ve been telling yourself all these years. Shake it up. Dream about a better future and then reverse engineer how to get there.    I think you’ll find that a big part of it just has to do with the story you’re telling yourself.   I love you, make it a good day.